Jasmine Aurorahttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk
London Portrait PhotographerWed, 24 Oct 2018 20:39:48 +0000en-GB
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2https://i0.wp.com/jasmineaurora.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/cropped-lil-icon.jpg?fit=32%2C32Jasmine Aurorahttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk
3232142368084Silhouette Film Photography – How I Rediscovered My Old Work Pt.1http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/silhouette-film-photography-how-i-rediscovered-my-old-work-pt-1/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/silhouette-film-photography-how-i-rediscovered-my-old-work-pt-1/#respondWed, 20 Mar 2019 12:20:23 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=8031Where It Began A notice popped up on my email saying something along the lines of ‘calling for images of cages!’. Way back in university I remember photographing some beautiful vintage birdcages so I decided to dig out my old hard drive and see what I could find – and oh boy did I find […]

A notice popped up on my email saying something along the lines of ‘calling for images of cages!’. Way back in university I remember photographing some beautiful vintage birdcages so I decided to dig out my old hard drive and see what I could find – and oh boy did I find a treasure trove that I was not really prepared for. Unfortunately, I found no images of cages, but what I did find was really quite exciting and strangely cathartic.

There were a lot of images of my old photo work from studying at university. I mean, mostly there were just so many memories crammed into one dusty hard drive but I found access to images that I really thought were long gone and that I would never ever get back. Result!

Finding the Treasure

Amongst those images was a series from my very early uni projects (around 2011) and one of my only photographed on 35mm film. I can’t remember much about the brief now but I think it may have had something to do with constructing your own reality within a small series. While I look back and see I didn’t quite do what they asked for, they make for pretty awesome images still and I’m definitely going to add these to my images for potential book covers. Back then I remember having so many ideas for use of silhouette photography within portraiture and this was my first foray into the field.

Learning From Past Work

The lesson I learned from looking back on this old work was that photography can be fun and playful, and sometimes I really lose a sense of that. You can experiment and get strange but brilliant outcomes and just go with what you fancy. I’m definitely going to try and incorporate that more going forward.

So, here we are – these where taken in a studio on 35mm film which I then developed, scanned, printed etc. When I found them this week I also added a bit more magic to the colour, mostly inspired by the book cover idea.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/silhouette-film-photography-how-i-rediscovered-my-old-work-pt-1/feed/08031Surprising Books I Read and Loved in January ’19http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/surprising-books-i-loved-in-january-19/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/surprising-books-i-loved-in-january-19/#respondThu, 31 Jan 2019 07:00:02 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7987I’ve thought about writing about the books I read for a little while now, and went back and forth whether or not to include it in this blog. But, you know, this blog is my place on the internet so I think it’s the right place for this to go. I am a *fairly* slow […]

]]>I’ve thought about writing about the books I read for a little while now, and went back and forth whether or not to include it in this blog. But, you know, this blog is my place on the internet so I think it’s the right place for this to go. I am a *fairly* slow reader and I procrastinate reading – So here goes, here are the three books I finished in January this year.

January has been a good reading month, for me three books is a big achievement. Last year I slowed down with reading for a lot of the year and was in a bit of a reading slump.

This blog post is spoiler free and all my own opinions.

The Break by Marian Keyes

‘The Break’ focuses on the main character, Amy, when her husband decides he wants to take a six month break from their marriage – and act like they were both single again.

I was really sceptical about this book. What first turned me off was that it’s pretty big book at over 500 pages long, and the subject (marriage) wasn’t something I had that much interest in reading about. It had been on my shelf for a few months when a friend of mine said it was really good so I decided to give it a go.

It was the kind of book that had such a ‘smooth’ writing style that I surprisingly just sailed through it. The chapters are really short which really adds to that 1:00am ‘just one more page!’ kind of tradition, and keeps you reading more and more. It seemed fast paced, and I really liked that.

The subject of marriage and taking a break was also something that hit me right in the heart. I really felt for Amy and could make so many comparisons to my own life and laughed and cried along with her. I thought she made some rather bad decisions, but I could also see why she made them.

The ending was just what I wanted. I’m not going to say any more but as my first Marian Keyes book and first chick-lit read over about 300 pages this was a little gem.

As the first book I finished from 2019 it was inspiring in a lot of ways and hey, it feels great to finish a big book. On goodreads I rated it 4/5.

Podkin One-Ear by Keiran Larwood

The first thing that drew me to this book in Waterstones was the gorgeous illustration on the front of the book. I really like reading teenage / children’s fiction and this was so cute that I picked it up and held it tight. I saw that the author was from the Isle of Wight (relatively close to me, and I used to go on holiday there as a child) and it all seemed exciting and interesting.

The book follows a young rabbit (Podkin) whose warren is attacked by the evil Gorm and his quest to escape them and put things right.

The reason I like children’s books is that they really do not hold back when it comes to really descriptive and visually interesting characters, and the whole magical worlds that they create. The amount of creativity it endless and it’s a wonderfully freeing place to be – this book was no exception. As with a lot of children’s books the ultimate goal was doing good and defeating evil, and sometimes you just need a reminder of that featuring a badass rabbit with one ear.

There were moments in the middle of the book where I felt it was a little slow moving and I was keen for it to move on to the action again, but overall it was fun to read.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

So there is definitely a theme with the books of January – suprise greatness. Heartless by Marissa Meyer is not one of my favourite books. It follows the story of the Queen of Hearts when she was a young girl who just wanted to open a bakery. Think Wicked from the Wizard of Oz – it’s the Alice in Wonderland version.

I have never really liked Alice in Wonderland – shock horror, I know. I thought it was a bit too crazy for me, and none of the characters ever really appealed to me. I suppose what I saw of it I found a little bit creepy. I had also read ‘Cinder’ and started ‘Scarlet’ by Marissa Meyer, another series based on fairytales, and I didn’t really get on with them much. I don’t really know what drew me to this book – I suppose I just love a good villain.

This book has now made me love the world of Wonderland. I now get very happy when I hear references to it in other media. The way Marissa Meyer writes is so full of whimsy and magic it put me in a good mood. The main character – Catherine – is a badass and I really enjoyed following her story. Because I’m not too familiar with the original story, I tended to not see things coming so there were many OOOHHH moments when I realised I recognised certain characters and joined the dots to how they related to the original story too.

My favourite part of the book – the male love interest. I don’t want to say too much, but he was the most beautiful character and I could read about him all day.

Currently Reading: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

At the moment, I’m only around 100 pages in so far and I’m really enjoying it. There is so much science that my head feels like that meme…

I’m waiting for the dinosaurs to start escaping and causing mayhem. I hope I stick with it and it’s as good as I want it to be.

If you’ve stuck with this blog post then you get a huge gold star and thank you for reading.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/surprising-books-i-loved-in-january-19/feed/079879 Things I Wish I Knew Before Studying A Photography Degreehttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk/studying-a-photography-degree/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/studying-a-photography-degree/#respondMon, 28 Jan 2019 17:58:53 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7955Choosing what degree to study is a big decision. A lot of us (in the UK anyway) will only be able to get student loans to study one degree, so it’s important to know what you are getting into. Here’s a little bit of background of what led me to my photography degree, and how […]

]]>Choosing what degree to study is a big decision. A lot of us (in the UK anyway) will only be able to get student loans to study one degree, so it’s important to know what you are getting into. Here’s a little bit of background of what led me to my photography degree, and how I made the decision.

Side note: Also accompanied by my old photography work at the time.

My Background

I always found academic things at school fairly easy. I enjoyed learning so I didn’t find it difficult to pass my GCSEs. At the time I was torn between going into some sort of academic work and pursuing my love of acting – therefore the A Levels I chose where Drama, Psychology, English Literature – I wanted a ‘softer’ subject to choose as my fourth option so I landed on photography because I knew photoshop and enjoyed making things. As it turned out – this was not how it all panned out. Due to some health reasons I had to drop drama and psychology, meaning I was left with two a levels in English Literature and Photography. I loved both of these subjects by the end of it, but the biggest surprise was Photography. Initially taken as a fun fill in, it soon became something I was so fascinated by and loved creating. I was good at it, and I only wanted to create more.

After A Levels I had a decision to make – what could I do with 2 good a levels? At one point I had decided to go back to college to study sciences (sometimes I wish I had) but the one subject I knew I could succeed was photography – and I suppose that’s how I ended up applying and getting accepted into the University for the Creative Arts.

Making the Decision

Looking back it was quite a snap decision. I thought I had to go to university straight away, I didn’t have any kind of plan for the future and I chose a subject that I thought I would enjoy and be okay at. I think nowadays a lot of university decisions are made in this kind of situation. If I could do it all again, I think I would have taken a year out working to think about what I really wanted to do rather than rush into a degree, but that’s how it worked out.

Okay, on to the things I wish I had known before studying a degree in photography.

What I Wish I Had Known

1- Photography is a lone subject and 100% means you need to put in the effort to make it something. In a lot of other subjects (eg. english, illustration) you can work all evening on your projects to perfect them. In photography you have to go out there and get the shots at the right time / place / moment. Therefore to get on well in photography, you need to be a proactive and self motivated kind of person. You can’t leave things until the night before it’s due apart from that one time.

2 – There are quite a lot of theory lectures. At the end of the day, it’s studying a degree and there are essays and a dissertation. A lot of universities have a department to help if you’re struggling, but be prepared to learn all about post modernism, psychoanalysis, image punctums and the social and cultural effects of photography. There is reading list like with any course.

3 – You get to use some pretty awesome state of the art equipment for free. Use it as much as you can! It’s amazing. I spent hours in the dark rooms, shot on a digital Hasselblad and huge old film cameras, rented a big studio whenever I wanted and had the run of a huge library full of the best books. All the computers there had the full Adobe Creative Suite too. Oh man, I did not take enough advantage of that and I MISS it now.

4 – You will probably leave doing a completely different form of photography than you started. I went in all photoshop heavy and over edited and came out wanting to make meaningful documentaries. It’s all part of the process. You learn a lot, and it changes how you work.

5 – They probably won’t teach you much about digital technical skills. I’m not sure if this was just the uni I went to, but we had next to no training on cameras, lighting and studios. These where the things we were expected to already know, or if we didn’t, to find a book about it.

6 – A lot of universities (definitely UCA) focus a lot on analogue film photography. It’s fun, but be prepared for that.

7 – Different lecturers will have different opinions and mark your work very differently. It’s frustrating and subjective but that’s just art. I once was doing a documentary project and my tutor told me to remove an image because it stood out as being too different. In the next tutorial, a different tutor told me I should 100% KEEP it. So, who knows. I also had a tutor once who would talk about Martin Parr forever. (PS: I really like Martin Parr’s work it just became a bit of an in joke)

8 – When you leave there are no jobs. Okay, so there might be the lucky few who fall into something salaried, but a lot of photography work is freelance or personal projects. A degree in photography is not a ‘fast track’ to earning a lot of money as a photographer. Afterwards, you’re on your own with how you choose to apply the skills to your life. Out of the people I’m still facebook friends with, only a very small handful are still pursuing photography. A few people have gone on to related skills like design or marketing, but I think most have left photography behind.

9 – It can be really expensive. The equipment side of things is sorted (and amazing) but like with any art subject, projects are self funded. If you want to photograph a series abroad then you need to fund that, or if you want to creative a2 framed prints you need to fund that too. There is a lot to be done to keep the costs down, but it can get expensive. When you study analogue film, which for me was compulsory, the cost of dark room paper and buying film is a lot.

–

Overall, I’m happy with the knowledge and experience I got out of studying a photography degree. There are some times that I wish I had studied something with a more linear career path in the sciences, but there are also some times that all I want to do is photography. It’s hard to know right now. I’m still finding my path.

I hope this has been useful to anyone who’s thinking of taking their study of photography further, please feel free to ask if you have any questions and I will help if I can.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/studying-a-photography-degree/feed/07955Home For the Weekendhttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk/home-for-the-weekend/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/home-for-the-weekend/#respondMon, 10 Dec 2018 17:58:23 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7812Hi everyone! It’s getting so close to Christmas now isn’t it? It’s definitely time to throw on a festive jumper and dance around to some tunes on Spotify. As a photographer, something I often forget to do is photograph my own family. Part of this is because I want to be in the moment and […]

]]>Hi everyone! It’s getting so close to Christmas now isn’t it? It’s definitely time to throw on a festive jumper and dance around to some tunes on Spotify. As a photographer, something I often forget to do is photograph my own family. Part of this is because I want to be in the moment and chat and laugh and experience it all, part of it is because bringing a big camera everywhere can be cumbersome and part of it is just that I forget.

I run a business in family photography – I often instill in my clients the importance of having photos of your loved ones and lovely moments to look back on and how precious family photo sessions are. This often overtakes my own need for family photos, and from now on I want this to change. These are all moments that I want to remember too – I want my family printed on my wall, and it’s completely within my power to do so.

This weekend I was able to travel back to my hometown to see my parents and family, something that I only really manage to do a couple of times a year. It was such a lovely weekend and I’m so happy that I’ve now got the memories AND the photographs too. It was all very festive. We walked around the street fair on Friday night, full of people dressed up as elves, a santas grotto and lots of children singing carols. On Saturday we headed to Gunwharf Quays and there was also a rock choir there getting all Christmassy and festive. It was also my nan’s 80th birthday so I was so happy that I got to be there to celebrate it with her too.

Going forward I want to create my own photobooks of MY family and get some lovely portraits to print on my wall.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/home-for-the-weekend/feed/078126 Ways You Need To Back Up Your Photoshttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk/ways-back-up-your-photos/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/ways-back-up-your-photos/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 20:56:06 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7717As someone who relies on external hard drives for everything, I knew that one day I’d be writing a post like this. At some point, technology fails, and I count myself as super lucky that this is the first time ever I have had a hard drive fail on me. I just plugged it in […]

As someone who relies on external hard drives for everything, I knew that one day I’d be writing a post like this. At some point, technology fails, and I count myself as super lucky that this is the first time ever I have had a hard drive fail on me. I just plugged it in one day, and along with some very questionable noises coming from it, it never showed up again.

Luckily, I was pretty much prepared for it to happen after hearing about horror stories from a lot of other photographers. All of my work for clients is safe and the only things I lost were a few personal photos and a few random files. I am very lucky, and I’m glad I took the basic measures to get things backed up. HOWEVER, this has given me warning for the future – I think there comes a (usually disastrous) moment in everyone’s life where they see the need to back things up, and this just happens to be mine. If you haven’t taken to back up or protect your files, then please let this little post be a reminder to do that. Share it far and wide to get the message to everyone one there.

5 – Don’t wipe your memory cards for important jobs

A more expensive way of doing things and not necessary for everyday things – but if you have that Really Important Jobit might be worth adding the cost of new memory cards that you never delete from or reformat.

6 – Don’t store things directly on your computer if you can help it.

Working off of backed up hard drives and online storage is generally more reliable.

–

Previously, I was probably utilising 3 of these methods on a consistent basis which is how I was able to get over this pretty unscathed. However, I’m still going to try and go through some data recovery to get back anything that I lost. It’s expensive though, and can be so easily prevented.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/ways-back-up-your-photos/feed/07717Feelin’ Festivehttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk/feelin-festive/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/feelin-festive/#respondThu, 22 Nov 2018 18:43:25 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7643The run up to Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year, but last year, I started it way too early. I was looking for signs of Christmas in September, was thrilled by the odd bit of tinsel in October, decorated for Christmas early November and by the time Christmas actually came around… […]

]]>The run up to Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year, but last year, I started it way too early. I was looking for signs of Christmas in September, was thrilled by the odd bit of tinsel in October, decorated for Christmas early November and by the time Christmas actually came around… I was pretty bored of it. I was looking at the tree thinking ‘I am bored of you. Can I have my house back now?’ by early December.

THEREFORE, this year I am trying to wait just a little bit longer. It’s a bit like being a kid in a sweet shop really. When you move out and have your own house as an adult you’ve suddenly got no-one else to say to you ‘HEY, LET’S WAIT!’ and your mind is firmly on *f it, I am an adult and I will DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS WHENEVER I WANT*. But it’s safe to say, I have learned my lesson now. Sometimes just waiting a teensy little bit can make it all the more magical when the time comes around. If you decorate early for Christmas I am not judging at all, in fact, I’m probably jealously looking at your festive house on social media and longing to decorate my own.

However – this year, there will be no Christmas decor or trees until 1st December, hopefully that will keep the magic alive for a little bit longer this year.

The only little sneaky bit of sneakyness that may have possibly snuck in is these fairy lights, but to be fair they’ve been around all year – I’ve just…moved them slightly. BUT it inspired me to set my camera up and photograph a little self portrait.

When do you decorate for Christmas and why?

Do you have anything special you like to do?

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/feelin-festive/feed/07643Happy Halloween!http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/happy-halloween/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/happy-halloween/#respondThu, 01 Nov 2018 15:31:04 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7638Hello and happy belated Halloween! A friend of mine very kindly got me this huge amazing pumpkin from her family’s patch and I needed to do something with it this Halloween. This was pretty fun to make and upload. Halloween isn’t usually my thing – I love all the cute spooky decorations, and I can […]

]]>Hello and happy belated Halloween! A friend of mine very kindly got me this huge amazing pumpkin from her family’s patch and I needed to do something with it this Halloween. This was pretty fun to make and upload. Halloween isn’t usually my thing – I love all the cute spooky decorations, and I can get on board with the dressing up, but actual scary things are not my cup of tea. Do you celebrate Halloween – if so, how? Jas x

Looking at my well-used and 6 year old Canon 6D with a cracked screen and missing the odd dial or two, I realised it was probably the right time to look into updating my photography kit. I always thought that doing so would be completely impossible with my finances, but then I discovered you could buy things on finance and it was like a choir of angels shining down on me and saying ‘what goodies would you like to play with?’. I looked into switching to a Sony mirrorless camera A LOT. I got a lot of different opinions, and the new A7iii sounds pretty amazing. However, in the end I decided to get another faithful Canon 6D as I love it a lot, and frankly, it was a third of the price too. BUT because I saved (ish) on my camera body, a part of me whispered ‘…but…. I could get a new lens?’.

Ever since I bought the Sigma 35mm ART f1.4 a few years ago, it hasn’t really left my camera. I completely fell in love with it, and after all this time I’m still so impressed with it. However, shooting only at 35mm has it’s limits. As it’s a little wide angle, I found shooting full body portraits and portraits from a distance a bit of a struggle. Not impossible, but I’d lose a bit of sharpness and the distortion from the lens would start to get quite obvious. I follow the amazing photographer Rekha Garton, and she recommended a 100mm lens. I thought – wow 100mm? My immediate thoughts where: a) I bet that shoots beautiful un-distorted portraits b) I also bet I’ll have to stand REALLY far back compared to my 35mm and c) I could take a macro picture of a bug, y’know, if I ever wanted too.

If I was going to spend the money on a new lens, the least I could do was get something that was vastly different to my 35mm so that I could try something new, but also had a few more options and strings to my bow. And so, the Canon 100mm f2.8 IS was added to my basket and arrived at my door. It was like an early Christmas day.

The first few pictures I took where… yes, okay, they where of a flower. With the 35mm, you have to stand quite far back to focus, but with this lens you can get right up and personal with the macro. I said ‘look how close up I can get ’ quite a few times, I’m pretty sure.

It’s so different from my 35mm. I love the photojournalistic feel of those images, and this lens is going to take some getting used to. However, all in all, I’m really happy with it.

I took it out for a bit of a spin photographing myself at the park. It’s SO. SHARP. My full body portraits look so different but in a great way.

This morning I took my fiance out to do something similar too…

It’s going to take some getting used to, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can create with it. New kit is inspiring! Everytime I take an image I’m excited about what result I will get.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/i-got-a-new-lens/feed/07607‘Whatever After’ Film Stills – Part 1http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/whatever-after-film-stills-part-1/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/whatever-after-film-stills-part-1/#respondWed, 17 Oct 2018 19:50:23 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7532Hello! I’t been a little while since I’ve updated here. I’ve been involved in a really exciting project over the past month or two as a film stills photographer and I’m happy to be able to share with you the very first part – so here goes. In September I spent 7 days working on […]

]]>Hello! I’t been a little while since I’ve updated here. I’ve been involved in a really exciting project over the past month or two as a film stills photographer and I’m happy to be able to share with you the very first part – so here goes. In September I spent 7 days working on set of the TV pilot filming ‘Whatever After’ which is a ‘A series of dark, witty and subversive fairy tales, re-imagined as allegories for the world today.’ The scripts are honestly brilliant, who knows where this project will end up?

I was there as film stills photographer, something which I am so keen to do more of now. It combines my love for theatre and documentary in one. I also generally helped out on set and stepped into a couple of roles too, including a magpie and a destitue woman (very glamorous!). I’m sure there are going to be quite a few blog posts on this coming out as I’m allowed to release more images and information, but for now I’m excited to share a bit of what I’ve been up to and some of the beautiful things I got to experience and photograph.

Throughout the week I made so many amazing new friends who I already miss. It reminded me of working in theatre – everyone working hard to come together and make something amazing and sharing the experience.

The hardest thing about the week was dealing with a new schedule (5am starts!) long days and how that would then effect my anxiety and energy levels. If anyone is interested, I may write a blog post about my experiences of anxiety on a film set and the little ways that worked for me to make the experience amazing.

]]>http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/whatever-after-film-stills-part-1/feed/07532Synthesishttp://jasmineaurora.co.uk/synthesis/
http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/synthesis/#respondSat, 25 Aug 2018 20:13:22 +0000http://jasmineaurora.co.uk/?p=7385I have always felt a connection with nature and flowers, and as I get older I find myself wanting and needing to be around nature more. I love walking down to the river to feed the ducks, and days full of rain and walks outside have such a relaxing and meditative effect on me. If only […]

]]>I have always felt a connection with nature and flowers, and as I get older I find myself wanting and needing to be around nature more. I love walking down to the river to feed the ducks, and days full of rain and walks outside have such a relaxing and meditative effect on me.

If only I put could down the computer and phone more often and do these things, instead of scrolling on instagram. Does anyone else feel the same? As soon as I’m living somewhere that allows pet’s I’m going to adopt a dog and we can explore the woods around here every day.

I want to start including nature, particularly flowers, in my work at lot more so this was my first little self portrait adventure. One small, single bloom to show the start of something more.